Split Second
by geshembo
Summary: Danny and Steve have a split second to discuss Steve's split second decisions


**A/N: This one was stuck in my mind for a bit, then in my virtual drawer. A weird One-Shot. Happens.**

 **As always, thanks to Yul for bestowing some spelling and grammar upon me**

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The workshop is cleared, no one inside, nothing inside, and Danny is fighting hard to keep his frustration at bay.

"Someone must have tipped them off." Steve states, holstering his gun, taking another look around him, hand on his hips wearing his I-really-need-to-take-someone-down face.

"Great deduction skills, McGarrett." Danny snaps.

Steve huffs and turns to Kono "Get CSU to sweep the place." She nods and leave.

"So what now?" Danny asks "Are you finally going to admit that you might be wrong putting your trust in that guy?"

"It's not like we had any choice, Danny."

"We did. We did have a choice, you idiot. **You** just decided to dismiss it, like you dismiss anything that takes more than three seconds to consider…"

There is a faint click sound, than a woosh, like a rush of water through thin pipe.

"Bomb!" Steve shouts, and Danny turns to run to the door, but then everything stops.

Danny is suspended in mid run, his left leg in the air, the right leg pushing the floor, only the toes touching it, body leaning forward.

He carefully lets his leg drop, then straightens up and turns.

Steve is suspended in mid air. Both hands reaching forward, toward where Danny just was, face frozen in shock and determination.

A few feet from them, instead of the innocent looking drawer set, there is the beginning of a fiery explosion, a small sun of bright yellow, orange and red, beautiful and deadly. A hail of bearing balls and nails hangs in the air around it, ready to be carried on the shock wave in all directions.

It takes him few a seconds to tear his gaze from it, and touch Steve.

Steve blinks at him a few times from his impossible position, then looks at himself, and carefully lowers his feet back to the ground to stand steady. He looks from Danny to the blossoming explosion. "What are we doing?" He finally asks.

Danny shrugs. " **I** am trying to get away from...this." his hand gestures toward the fiery red "You see, this is over there, and I am running towards the door there." he gestured to the other direction. "Hence away from the bomb. What is unclear, is what **you** are doing."

Steve's hands goes to his hips, as he examines Danny and the mayhem again. "You can't outrun a bomb, Danny."

"I am well aware of that, Steve. I just thought we have...more time."

"We don't."

"Yes, I can see that now. But you yelled 'Bomb', how could I know that it was blowing right there and then?"

"What did you want me to yell? 'Hey, Danny, this thing is blowing in our faces right now please take cover?'"

"That would be more informative, yes, but I understand why you chose that one word instead. I am just trying to explain to you what I'm doing. Now why won't you explain to me what **you** are doing?"

"Well," Steve holds one arm in front of him, palm upwards "Since I suspected we don't have time to get out of here, I am trying to get us into cover."

"No, no Steve." Danny shakes his head. "You **had** cover there," he points behind Steve to a heavy desk "but you jumped towards here" he waves his arms encircling the space between them.

Steve rubs the back of his neck, he seems to be contemplating his words "Since I didn't have time to convey in words that the explosion was happening now and you needed to take cover, I decided…" He trails off eyes looking everywhere but Danny

"To **be** my cover." Danny completes for him

"To get us both low." Steve tries to correct

"Dammit, Steven!" Danny yells "Look at this! You are an experienced ammunition freak, tell me, what is happening here? You jumped on me, you put yourself between me and this...thing, what is going through your gung-ho mind when you do these things!"

Steve is annoyed himself, face contorting unpleasantly, eyes glaring. "What do you think that is going through my mind? It's a split second decision, and I am trying to do what's best for both of us!"

"Best for **both** of us?!" Danny steps closer to the deadly whirlpool of fire and metal, picking one of the balls frozen in mid air "Look at this! This is coming at us in crazy-miles-per-hour, ready to sink into any bare flesh standing in its way, not to mention the flames of hell at its heels. And you just put your body between it and myself, how can that be what's best for both of us!"

"I'm wearing a vest…" Steve starts to explain

"So do I"

"...And while in the position that your body is in you would have caught multiple shrapnels to extensive parts of your body," Steve continued ignoring the interruption " **my** actions will get both of us to a position in which less body parts are exposed to direct hit, since we are lying low with our boots taking the blunt force of the attack."

"You mean **your** boots."

"Danny…"

"No, no, don't… just don't. Be honest. What is the most likely outcome here, for both of us. Do we even have enough time to duck? Would the vest be efficient?" Danny demands "Don't bullshit me. Be honest" he orders again.

Steve looks around as if examining the situation. Danny thinks he is just stalling.

"To be honest...It looks bad." He looks at Danny, a serious expression on his face "I might not make it."

Danny throws the metal ball he is holding between his fingers in anger. The small object bounces dutifully back to its former place, taking part in the high-speed-deadly hail "Son of a bitch, Steven, Why? Why do you do this?" Danny yells

"It is the best course of action, it's not like I had time to consider several options!" Steve defends himself "Why are you yelling at me?"

"Because, somehow, your out-of-the-sleeve best course of action always, ALWAYS puts you in harm's way!"

"What do you want me to do, Danny? Dive into cover knowing you had zero chance to survive this? You have kids, and a major part of my job is to make sure that they get to have you back at the end of the day, no matter what."

Danny feels the sting of tears pushing to burst out of the corner of his eyes "What about you, Steve?"

"What about me?"

A short pained sound escapes Danny's mouth before he can stifle it "Fuck you, Steve. How can you be so accepting, so confident, that your life is worth less than everyone else's?"

"It's not like I want to die, despite of what you always think. It's just...how it is."

"No, no it's not. You think that your...that if you...if you were gone, it won't have any effect on anyone? On my kids? On...me?" His head drops, suddenly too heavy for him to hold up.

Steve steps closer, Danny can see the stupid heavy boots through the liquid accumulating in his eyes. A hand lies heavily on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Danno. I wish I could have seen another way, but...this is who I am."

"I know." Danny looks up, "Damn it, I know. And I can't even say I wish you were different."

"Come here." Steve pulls him to a tight hug, and Danny holds on, suddenly feeling a strange pull toward that cursed position he held before, running away from that stupid, stupid bomb. Steve must feel that too, because he says "You ready, buddy?"

Danny's breath hitch, his grip tightening "No! no... Just, give me another second."

"We don't know the outcome for sure." Steve says, hand squeezing Danny's nape "It could turn out fine. We could spend some more quality time together in the hospital."

"Yeah, there is no way I'm sharing a room with you again." Danny lies. He would share a room. Steve just needs to get there. _Oh, please, let him get there_.

They walk the few steps to their initial position, Steve's hand over Danny's shoulders, Danny's hand hugging Steve's waist. Then Steve shoots him a smile as he jumps easily back to his mid-flight position. "I love you, Buddy."

Danny just looks at him for a few seconds. "I called you an idiot. Suggested that this is all your fault." he blurts.

Steve's smile turns into a nasty grin "You always call me an idiot, and you always blame me for everything. I just zone you out when it gets too annoying, don't worry about it."

"Schmuck." Danny's body start to turn around slowly away from his partner, the pull now too strong to resist.

"Love you too, Steve." he manages to say before the air rushes noisily around him, and Steve slam into his back, sending them both to the floor. The large, heavy body shields him as a wave of raging flames and metal shards roams over them.

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 **A/N: I'd love to hear thoughts, but please be gentle :P**


End file.
